It is known in the art to have a cooling module, such as is used in a vehicle with an internal combustion engine, for example, with a radiator and a fan to generate air flow across the radiator. It is also conventional to mount the fan in a fan housing or shroud which is attached to the radiator.
It is also known in the art to provide attachment sites on the fan housing to mount a heat exchanger other than the radiator. For example, German Laid Open Application No. 4,039,490 shows a cooling module having a radiator, a pair of side-by-side fans, and a single fan housing. A gap is provided between the radiator and the fan housing in which a condenser is disposed. The fan housing has support plates with adjustment pins to which the condenser is attached. A similar arrangement was suggested in German Patent No. 4,244,039, but with an intermediate oil cooler rather than a condenser.
These modules may have several drawbacks. For one thing, the positioning of the other heat exchanger between the radiator and the fans may attenuate air flow through the radiator, thereby degrading the performance of the radiator. Additionally, the mounting of the condenser between the radiator and the fans increases the depth of the module, which is generally undesirable because the space within the engine compartment of a vehicle is limited.
Alternatively, the other heat exchanger may be attached directly to the vehicle separately from the cooling module, the other heat exchanger being connected to the radiator by hoses if the same coolant is used. This arrangement allows the dimensions of the cooling module to be minimized, and may provide for increased air flow through the radiator as opposed to the modules described above.
However, such cooling modules may also have drawbacks. By attaching the other heat exchanger directly to the vehicle separate and apart from the cooling module, the costs of installing the cooling system in the vehicle may be greater than in those modules wherein the cooling system is assembled as a single, unitary module. In addition, the additional hose required to connect the other heat exchanger to the radiator may use up considerable amounts of the limited space available within the engine compartment.
It should also be noted that it is known in the art to mount other electrical parts of the cooling system to the fan housing. For example, German Patent No. 3,903,199 discloses that a signal emitter which is part of an electric control circuit for the cooling system may be attached to the fan housing.